Istanbul: Scuderia Coloni race 1 report

OFF-DAY FOR SCUDERIA COLONI IN ISTANBUL
Scuderia Coloni had a real off-day on Saturday in Istanbul. The Italian
team had good ambitons for the race given that Alberto Valerio was
starting from 9th place on the grid, but the brazilian's race ...

OFF-DAY FOR SCUDERIA COLONI IN ISTANBUL

Scuderia Coloni had a real off-day on Saturday in Istanbul. The Italian
team had good ambitons for the race given that Alberto Valerio was
starting from 9th place on the grid, but the brazilian's race was
difficult right from the start. When the lights were off Alberto got off
the line pretty well keeping his position but then, exiting turn 1, he
had to go right suddenly to avoid an unexpected move by Charles Pic going
wide and on the dirt. Alberto had to lift his foot from the throttle and
Razia, Bianchi and Vietoris took the chance to overtake him, meaning a
big fight to enter the points. Pressed by Herck for a big chunck of the
race Alberto drove well and after his mandatory pit-stop he started to
close the gap on Giacomo Ricci and Christian Vietoris, who where fighting
for 8th place. With 13 laps to go Valerio was gaining 3-4 tenths per lap
on his opponents, but he decided to push even more. With 9 laps to the
finish, he was still closing the gap but he made a mistake under braking
at turn 9, losing time and a place. From then on the only option was
driving on the limit to make up some ground and Valerio did that.
Unfortunately, he spun in the last corner with two laps to go, retiring
from the race.

Also Vladimir Arabadzhiev had an unlucky race: the Bulgarian driver,
starting from P22, fought for position with Jonny Cecotto jr. and Josef
Kral but after his mandatory pit-stop, done on lap 7, he went wide in
corner 3 damaging his car's underfloor. He decided to keep on racing
anyway, but with 3 laps to go a technical glitch affected the car balance
under braking, forcing Vladimir in the tyre wall, fortunately with no
damage for the driver.

Paolo Coloni: "We are really sorry for Alberto because looking at what
happened in the race he could have finished in the points easily.
Unfortunately, he lost some position in the first corner to avoid Pic,
and starting a race like that is never easy. Also Vladimir was unlucky,
because he did just a little mistake which had a big impact on his car
competitiveness".